Tuesday, 8 October 2013

Few people were satisfied by the series finale of Dexter that aired a few weeks ago (although I gave it a decent enough review, in the context of what the show became post-season 4), and it didn't help that it bowed out a week before Breaking Bad's own finale—which had been schooling Dexter's writers in how to bring a drama to a brilliant close all summer. But now it's been revealed that the writers were in something of a network straight-jacket...

Producer John Goldwyn told Vulture that:

"...[the network wouldn't] let us kill him. Showtime was very clear about that. When we told them the arc for the last season, they just said, 'Just to be clear, he's going to live.' There were a lot of endings discussed because it was a very interesting problem to solve, to bring it to a close. People have a relationship with Dexter, even if it doesn't have the size and the ferocity of the fanbase for Breaking Bad. But it has a very core loyal following."

While this doesn't excuse the writers for a flaccid final season, I can sympathise with the fact they had to avoid what was probably the ending everyone but the network wanted. It's even more frustrating because Showtime wouldn't have been so persistent about Dexter surviving without believing, on some level, that the character could stage a comeback: either with a telemovie in a few years, or a revival in a decade, or maybe a feature-film...

However, by interfering creatively, Showtime have ironically lost a lot of the audience respect that kept the show going through its last four, wilting seasons. If Dexter ever did come back (which it could easily do), it's hard to imagine anyone being excited beyond die-hard fans...